Things To Do In SW Florida

By DEE-ANN DURBIN

The Campbell’s Co. said Wednesday it has fired an executive who was recorded making racist comments and mocking the company’s products and customers.

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Martin Bally, a vice president in Campbell’s information security department, was named in a lawsuit filed last week by Robert Garza, a former Campbell’s employee who said he was fired Jan. 30 after he reported Bally’s comments to a supervisor.

The lawsuit was filed in Michigan, where both Garza and Bally live. Campbell’s is based in Camden, New Jersey.

In the lawsuit, Garza claimed he met with Bally in November 2024 to discuss his salary. During the meeting, which Garza allegedly recorded, Bally described Campbell’s as “highly process(ed) food” and said it was for “poor people.” read more

After a long run, home insurance price increases in Florida slowed to a near halt between August and September, raising the question: Now will prices go down?

Statewide average costs for all-perils coverage of owner-occupied homes increased by $1 between August and September, from $3,747 to $3,748, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s analysis of the most recently released insurance cost data from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

That comes out to an increase of 0.03% — or less than a tenth of a percentage point. It’s the lowest increase since the state began releasing its Residential Market Share Reports on a monthly basis earlier this year.

Since January, premium costs have increased by 1.5% and average premiums jumped from $3,691 to $3,748.

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Of course, South Florida homeowners don’t expect to pay those prices. Premiums in the region have long remained higher than the remainder of the state, due to its higher density, higher housing costs, and resulting higher costs posed by the threat of a major hurricane. read more

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Debbie Carlson posed four important questions regarding retirement. Her argument was that your answers to these questions can help you decide if you’d benefit from a financial adviser. These are the questions:

Am I where I need to be with my retirement savings?

Am I ready to retire?

Will I be able to manage my investments?

Am I ready to listen to the advice?

I believe that a financial adviser can be very useful in helping you find the answers to questions one and two. To my mind, answering these questions is a matter of answering several subsidiary questions: What are my monthly and annual expenses now? How will they change in retirement? How will they change over time due to factors such as inflation?

Many of these questions cannot be answered with certainty. Consider inflation. At a 2% annual rate, which is the Federal Reserve’s target when setting interest rate policy, in 10 years time prices will be 22% higher than they are today. If inflation is closer to 3%, as it has been recently, prices will be 34% higher. And inflation in important categories of spending, such as health care, can be way in excess of the consumer price index. read more

TALLAHASSEE — As Florida lawmakers dig into issues involving artificial intelligence, state Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky wants to make sure regulators can properly oversee AI use by insurance companies.

“Responsible AI governance is crucial,” Yaworsky told the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee last week. “I’m not an opponent of AI, but I do think it needs to be responsibly deployed. There are some companies that I think are doing it in a much more responsible manner than others.”

Rep. Hillary Cassel, R-Dania Beach, filed a bill (HB 527) on Monday that seeks to ensure humans make decisions about denials of insurance claims. Cassel’s bill is identical to a measure (SB 202) filed in October by Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island.

Yaworsky did not go that far last week when outlining his ideas to the Senate committee. He said he wants to address issues such as disclosure when artificial intelligence is being used, auditing and understanding that companies have a “human in the loop that knows what that system is doing, has expertise on that.” read more

By MAE ANDERSON

NEW YORK (AP) — At Fleece & Harmony, a woolen mill and yarn shop in bucolic Belfast, Prince Edward Island, in Canada, owner Kim Doherty used to be able to send yarn skeins to U.S. customers across the border with little fanfare.

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The yarn orders usually met an import tax exemption for packages valued at under $800, meaning it could be imported tariff-free and avoid the customs process.

But ever since the Trump administration eliminated the exemption as of Aug. 29, the cost to send yarn to U.S. customers has skyrocketed. The bill for a $21 ball of yarn now includes $12 to $15 in brokerage fees that her shipper UPS charges, plus state taxes and a 6.5% tariff, all of which almost doubles her costs. read more